bobO wrote:The best polish is the one that doesn't cost 75 bucks an inch. One can never have to many swords, . Gonna buy a Ukulele, when I was researching which one to get I found the British all Ukulele band... you Brits,lol

I asked because when I got the Raptor it had a very fine coating of rust on it. I've found Brasso is the best thing to take it off ( have also tried Goddards and Wilkos ), but even with a coat of oil the reddish glow still begins to appear like an unwanted bloom again after a few days. Short of finding a little man who knows how to polish blades properly ( that's choice isn't it? Little, and probably owns a chip shop on the side... forgive me for my preconceptions ), I'm running out of ideas. It's a real PITA when you spend a whole afternoon getting it to something that looks good and then the rusty colouration comes back when you haven't got your eye on it.

Rust erasers work good for small patches of rust, but tends to scuff the finish, if you don't mind the finish of the blade being scuffed you could use 1500 grit sand paper, then try to work a finer finish with 2500-3000 grit? It'll keep you busy a while

Geordie Ross wrote:Rust erasers work good for small patches of rust, but tends to scuff the finish, if you don't mind the finish of the blade being scuffed you could use 1500 grit sand paper, then try to work a finer finish with 2500-3000 grit? It'll keep you busy a while

I'm reaching the conclusion that Liberons 0000 grade steel wool and an afternoon of elbow grease might be the answer, but it will put a whole new finish on the blade. There's no temper line ( wat'sisname ) that could be damaged, but I'm just a bit two bob bittish about creating a new, more frightening, problem if I take off the existing surface. That said... nothing ventured, eh?

You're best off asking mick (blademaster) about it, he's just about perfected polishing a new finish on a rusted blade, the steel of the raptor series is very tough, so elbow grease will be a necessity lol

Do NOT take steel wool or sandpaper to your blade, you will only ruin it further. It is very easy to ruin your blade if you have never done this before or don't know what you're doing!
What you want to do;
1. Remove current rust, use a calcium, lime and rust remover. If that don't work try a scotchbrite pad, they come color coded by abrasivness, use the least abrasive first.
2. Use a metal polish compound such as metal glow that turns black when you rub it in. Take your time and rub in a good polish.
3. now apply choji oil or mineral oil to the blade, this should keep the rust from coming back.

Check your saya! If there is rust in your saya previously then all this will be for naught, if not removed.

Trimming trees with a katana and tree sap will very often cause this problem, especially if sap gets in the saya.
The rust on a blade will come back if;
the original polish is ruined and not fixed.
exposed to rust again, like in the saya.
storing the sword in a very humid area (from what I heard of the UK, is everywhere) just be aware of this.

As Geordie said, Mick can probably tell you the UK brands of everything I mentioned.

bobO wrote:OH Polish ! See when I hear polish on a Katana I think "sharpen" sorry. What you want is something like metal glo, works great and not only removes rust but will help protect the blade. Pretty much what Dot said, you start with anything more abrasive then a jewelers type polish your opening up a can of worms. IF you do want to go that route then look up Hybrid polish. You should find a bunch of info on either you tube or sword forum international. Also Renaissance wax works great to protect the blade. And I've become a big fan of Jake, guy just blew me away.

See when I think polish, I think something like this ~ http://www.toyamaryu.org/surface_polish ... r%20Stones ~ and the sums don't add up. Initially, then I think of it, okay your blade might have only cost (x) but it has been polished by Mr. Y ( the little man, who sees through me ) who put his wee bit of paper under the tsaka... and now I'm sounding like a grunt on the Horse Guards Parade.

Spring Forest,
You have many misconceptions about sword polishing.
Especially when refering to Japanese blades.
Sigh,.................once again I lost another long post which I just forgot most of what I am saying.
I will come back to this later when I am less frustrated.

BTW, when bobO was talking about a polish job at 75 bucks an inch, he wasn't refering to swords, at least not that kind anyway.

Last edited by Dotanuki2K on Sat Feb 09, 2013 1:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

hang on a minuet guys ive just had a thought on some swords ive got/had after cleaning (same has happened to geordie and others) depending on what sort
of oils used either paul chen sword oil or a.n.other the blade dose tend to take on a reddish purple hue after a day or two so you get the same effect as oil
on a wet road sort of rainbow effect the colour gose as soon as you wipe the oil off the blade? just a thought

now for actuall blade polishing i use (meguiars all metal polysh) you,ll know its working when it starts turning black (as dots stated in a earlier post)
the more you polish with it the better the finish ive a cheap bowie ive done it on and now it looks like a steel mirror if used on a katana pay close attention
as you near the hamon no point in removing to much detail from the hamon but i use a cotton bud between the wavy?? lines so it dont effect the hamon any
oh i do this on the cheaper kats not the more exspensive ones i leave them stricktly alone as i never use my good ones mind you i dont use the cheap ones either
but if you screw up slightly its not so bad so use a cheapo sub £100 to practice on geordie got one from me that was badly scuffed when i got it two hrs work and
it looked better than it was when it was first bought ask him nicely he may show you a pic

Spring Forest wrote:Are there any good polishers of Japanese blades in the UK?

For a modern production Japanese style blade?...No.

That's point one... thanks.

Check your saya! If there is rust in your saya previously then all this will be for naught, if not removed.

I've taken a vacuum cleaner to it... truly frightening... the amount of crud that came out of it!

depending on what sort of oils used either paul chen sword oil or a.n.other the blade dose tend to take on a reddish purple hue after a day or two so you get the same effect as oil on a wet road sort of rainbow effect the colour gose as soon as you wipe the oil off the blade? just a thought

Dawn at 12.30pm. I think part of my paranoia was colour being picked up by the oil when in the blade was in the saya.

So the next question... and I can feel my ring going tight here... is this a Chen blade?

All the other photos of Raptor's that have been posted show hi's and hamon's and this has neither. Personally, whatever it is I'm still enamoured of the darned thing, but it would be nice to know. Is it a composite, or the real thing? [ Please ignore the books. I'm not trying to brag they just happened to be on table ].

hard to tell from the angle what it is cant see the tsuba properly to see for sure
a clear close up of the side of the blade/tsuba could help
just a thought going by the little i can make out on the tsuba
dose it have two or three monkeys climing up a fruit/peach tree??